University of South Carolina Libraries
BY E. B, MTJEEA"1 Ti}??h^'Column. J. Q. CLINKSCALES, Editor. Mr. W. A. Dicksoa will ? teach at Cedar Grove, District No. 1. Miss Mollie Moorehead is teaching at Ivy Hollow, and Miss Mollie Roberts at Holland's._ Mr. R. W. Pickens is appointed to fill vacancy ;in the Board of Trustees for Brushy ^ek^Di?triict No. 4. There are more educational journals taken and read by the teachers of An? derson County now. than at any time in the past. ^??V^._ L Mr. W. S. Lee:$?es charge at Sandy Springs while Mrs. A. M. Darracott "teaches the young idea" at Melton, District No. 3. ____ " ?? v*. ^" ... : T$f|tru&e$s\ and patrjonsr of Hunter's Springs scBo?l ?re" requested to 'meet there at 2 o'clock next Saturday, Nov. 19. Let every patron be present. There is business for von. If you have a pupil, a young man or young lady, in your school who wishes access to the Ubray, he may r have it by simpry hMdipg:'y?a$l. :Let us encour? age our pupils to read more. And still another of our teachers is married. Miss Florence T?te has our congratulations, but how about our list of teachers, will we have to fill vacancies wi^i p&fop* JC(P- iDther counties ? ' How lias your school opened ? Are the people interested in the work you are trying to do? How about that house? Do you think you can get through the Winter there? Let us hear from you. neyer hear from Mr L?ngsten, pf ?P'elzor these ;days. Wonder what is the matter?' We expected Mr. Langston at Honea Path, but he wasn't there. Was he too busy ? His blushing face would have helped us there. We see on our table copies of The Teachers' Institute, iSfabut?ternt JfownifU of Education, Normal -Index, Carolina Teacher, and other very valuable school journals?call or send and get a sample cqpvj^ijEbti can'^hope to do,.good work wijSojj^oo^ toolsi;: Mr. A*. J. Watt contributes the first dollar to the Teachers' Library Fund. Who next? Don't forget that we will call on you for one dollar when we see you. Have it ready. We want only one dollar from each teacher to start this library. The library has been long need? ed?come up now like a man and get $8.0 worth of reading matter for $1.00; Don't forget that the fund is not complete without your %lM. -Tai 's.':\j. ...?r~r. Now, about how much good have you d?re"during the past two weeks work? Have you made any 'mistakes ? Have you. spoiled any .character? Have you trifled away any time that might have been given tirprofitable reading? Ask yourself these questions and answer, them, thoughtfully. If you have made mistakes remember that the successful teacher is not he who never' makes a mistake, bat he who never makes the 8am e mistake twice. Many of you teachers are boarding. How do you spend these long evenings? Have you a room with a fire place, and do you hare a good w?rm fire and a good lamp ? Do you sit with the family until bedtime around the family fire ? Weil, if you do, you are in a fair way to lose much valuable time.. The best teachers need to be filled once in every twenty four hours. Get you a good lamp, if possible, board where you can have a room with fire place and study every night._ FIEST LESSON IK GEOGRAPHY. The first idea to be developed iu teach* ing Geography is the shape of the earth. -After this is comprehended, then the work may proceed from the known to the unknown. The school yard will be the first lesson. The cardinal points can be taught and many of the natural divisions of land and water cao% be seen. After? wards the township may be studied, then the* county,'"stated "country, and then | Europe. It is proceeding from the known to the unknown. Maps can be drawn of the school yard, and then of the school district. Let all the roads be marked and the residence of the pupil indicated. It will be inter? esting to' them and they will readily understand the nature of a map. Trace streams of water. The live teacher will have no trouble in keeping up an interest among the pupils. It would be a good idea to go with the pupils some, .afternoon to a stream of water, and let them see the meaning of a lake, island, - strait, peninsula, &c. These terms will then mean something to them. This is much better than try? ing to illustrate them'with a box of sand and a watering pot. Talk about the mountains, the rivers and the springs in the community. What you want is to assist the pupils to acquire knowledge.? The Normal Index. - PLEASANT SCHOOL HOUSES. Most of the country schools will be in session before the next issue of the Index. Mach depends upon a correct beginning. A mistake made the first day is seldom corrected. The best work is accom? plished when teacher and pupils work together. A pleasant school house makes school government an easy task. It is almost impossible for the average boy to do good work in an old dilapidated school house. Everything suggests to evil or mischief. The old scarred desks are a temptation even to a jack knife. Boys do not injure good desks, and sel? dom mark on a neat wall. If you want boys to be good make the school room pleasant. The teacher is not expected to purchase desks and furniture. Deco? rate the walls. Take evergreens, ferns and leaves?many beautiful ornaments can be made from them. By grouping the various tints of forest leaves many different designs cau be formed. Have Y & CO. the pupils help in the work. What they help to make they will not thoughtlessly destroy. In almost every community a few pictures can be obtained to hang in the school room. Unbleached muslin will answer for window curtains. Polish the stove, sweep the cobwebs from the wall and ceiling, and then keep the house clean. Don't think it won't pay. Try it. If you?school room is dingy and dirty it should be ornamented for a still greater reason. A little soap and water applied to the desks and floor would add much to the appearance of many school houses.? The Normal Index. The "JRescae" of Captain John Smith. "Historic Girl" by E. S. Brooks in St. Nicholas for November. The Indians especially admired bravery and cunning. This device of the white chieftain and his valor when attacked appealed to their admiration, and there was great desire to see him. ? The renowned prisoner was received with the customary chorus of Indian yells; and then, acting upon the one leading India custom, the law of un? bounded hospitality, a bountiful feast was set before him. The captive, like the valiant man he was, ate heartily, though ignorant what his fate might be. The Indians seldom wantonly killed their captives. When a sufficient num? ber had ucn sacrificed to avenge the memory - f such braves as had fallen in fight, the remaining captives were either adopted as tribesmen or disposed of as slaves. So valiant a warrior as this palefaced cau co-rouse was too smportant a person? age to be used as a slave, and Wabunsona cook, the chief, received him as an honored guest rather than as a prisoner, kept him in his own house for two days, and adopting him as his own son, prom? ised him a large gift of land. Then, with many expressions of friendship, he returned him, well escorted by Indian guides, to the trail that led direct back to the English colony at Jamestown. : This relation destroys the long familiar romance of the doughty captain's life being saved by "the King's'' own daugh? ter, but it seems to be the only true version of the story, based upon his own original report. But though the oft-described "rescue" did not take place, the valiant English? man's attention was speedily drawn to the agile little Indian girl, Mataoka, whom her father called his "tomboy" or pocahuntas. She was as inquisitive as any young girl, savage or civilized ; and she was so full of kindly attentions to the captain, and bestowed on him so many smiles and looks of wondering curiosity, that Smith made much of her in return, gave her some trifling presents and asked her name. Now it was one of the many singular customs of the American Indians never to tell their own names, nor even to allow them to be spoken to strangers by any of their own immediate kindred. The reason for this lay in their peculiar superstition,* which held that the speak? ing of one's real name gave to the stranger to whom it was spoken a magi? cal and harmful influence over such persons. For this very reason, Wabnnsonacook was known to the colonists by the name of his tribe, Powbatan, rather than by his own name. So, when he was asked his little daughter's name, he hesitated, and then gave in reply the nickname by which he often called her, Pocahuntas, the "little tomboy." This agile young maiden, by reason of her relationship to the head chief, wss allowed much more freedom and fun than was usually the lot of Indian girls, who were, as a rule, the patient and uncomplaining little drudges of every Indian home and vil? lage. __ Whiskey Arithmetic. "How mauy drinks of whiskey do you average a day ?" said one gentleman to another as they were enjoying a social glass at a well known resort on Vine street yesterday afternoon. "Oh, takiug the year round, I presume my average would be about ten a day." "And how long has this been going on ?" was asked. "Straight along for twenty years, I guess; but it never hurt me any, and I can tend to my patients (he is a profes? sional man) just as well as I ever could." "But how much whiskey, taking your own 8tatenjeut for it, do you suppose you have drunk during that time?" "I'm sure I don't know. I never thought about that." "Well, let us take another nip and then figure on it," and they did, and here is the result of their work: "Ten drinks a day would be seventy drinks a week, or over 3,640 drinks in a year. In twenty years that would give the enormous number of 72,800 drinks, Now, the average drink taken in this country is said to be sixty to a gallon. Then divide this 72,800 by 00, and you will find that you have consumed 1,213 and a fraction gallons. Now, there are supposed to be on an average thirty-six gallons to a barrel. Divide 1,213 by 36 and you find that you have drunk just about thirty-six barrels of the stuff." The old toper looked at the figures and then at his friend, and then remarked: "Well, let's take one more and then I think I'll give my stomach a rest for a day or two." Love Your Mother. Next to the love of her husband, noth? ing so crowns a woman's life with honor as this second love, the devotion of the son to her. We have never known a boy to "turn out badly" who began by falling in love with his mother. Any, man mayifall :a love with a fresh-faced girl, and the man who is gallant to the girl may cruelly neglect the poor and weary wife. But the big boy who truly loves and honors his mother at his middle age is a genuine knight, who will love his wife as much in the sere-leaf autumn as he did in the daiscd spring. There is nothing so beautifully chivalrous as the love of a bi^ boy for his mother. -? They always talk who never think. AN] THE VIEWS OF A HEATHEN. Wong Ching Foo Picks Flaws in Western Civilization. From the New York WorUl. The thing that takes my eye the mo3t in Western civilization is the way the American moguls make their money. There's nothing small about them in , -abbing desires, their ability to make millions upon nothing, and the remarka? bly civilized way in which they are allowed to do it, takes the heathen's eye. If that financiering oecret is introduced into China?which i3 being done at this nfoment by a missionary like Count Mitkiewicz, of the Chinese banking syn? dicate?the entire empiro will become willing converts in a single day. To such profitable enterprise, even H. I. M. the Emperor would join in. And then good-bye to the Chinese laundries throughout the United States, and the now troublesome social and political problem of Chinese immigration would be a thing of the past. Down with work of all kinds. Speculation is emperor. Financial legerdemain watering values with such "business" idea3 once grafted upon the heathen mind, the Western world would have to look out for its lau? rels. Another very valuable Western idea that would benefit the heathens is the "patent medicines." Our trouble with the teeming millions of Chinese, is that they do not take enough medicines to keep their bodies and souls together. That's why they don't multiply faster. There are only 400,000,000 of them, while, by our Western patent medicine system, we have in the United States alone 60,000,000 of people, with immi? grants and all. the mercenary americans. To turn to more serious things, I con? fess that I do not understand why, for a matter of mere existence, civilized people so cruelly and persistently crowd each other to the wall. From day to day, even through the night under the electric blaze, they engage in a wild struggle for existence, when Heaven has made the earth to give forth her abundance for their comforts without the necessity of their killing each other to get it. Yet they don't even allow their beasts of burden time to masticate their food prop? erly. No wonder they fall by the road? side. Misery is desperate and crime rampant, and the few successful in their financial and social aims "drop oh ' just as they are all rea to enjoy life. Look at lower Broadway during busi? ness hours on any day, especially in and about Fulton street. Why, the intensity of the struggle for worldly existence as manifested there, is simply enough to freeze the nerves of any contemplating heathen. Cuibono?* What a life! Oh, superior being3! is there no more to? morrow ! Is this the modern method of preparing for the future ? No wonder your heart disease is common and your insane asylums are crowded. Has civilization so advanced that it perpetually makes men willing slaves in a mart of constant and cruel mental anguish ? Fashion, style and habit make it nec? essary for such terrible contentions, prob? ably ! I have Eeen how, in the most "civilized" part of the United States, a family of six, poor and almost dependent, will buy or hire an expensive music-box called a piano, and place it in the parlor, just for show, and just because other families, who are better off than they have the same thing. The heathen pre? fers to have no piano, but to have some* thing good to eat and wee a heathen's view of our politics. In politics, among the civilized Amer? ican nation, it seems to me, everybody is bos3 in the matter of government and nobody is boss, after all, except in the matter of "boodle" business. Everybody wants the boodle, but only a few are get? ting it. As a rule the fifth-class lawyers rule. If the supply of these runs short a descent is made upon the saloons and liq? uor divers to occupy the positions of trust. Such men as the late Wendell Phillips, Beecher, Horace Greely and other intellectual giants are left to die unrewarded by a grateful people. They are afraid such men may not be shrewd enough to plunder them quickly enough. The presiding magistrates of the Courts of this country are very smart men and generally good men, but they lack the dignities that properly belong to a Court of justice, which, according to our heathen standpoint, is one of the most important parts of the administration of tbe law?to enforce obedience by awe instead of corporeal punishment and im? prisonment. Yet there is more in red tape ! 'tsiness in one of the least of the Courts of Araer ca than in the greatest Courts in Asia. No man, woman or child can obtain redress in tbe Courts of justice here with? out money, and hU of it too, and must swallow the bitter dose as best he. she or it can. The only Courts in which you need no money in America are the police Courts'? but there only a very small por? tion of men's grievances can be attended to. Even there the richer citizen has invariably the winning card. And this is a free country ! A poor, heart-broken husband, pawn? ing his only coat for $2 on a bleak, cold winter day, in order to obtain capital that he might sell peanuts in the most civilized city in the world (New York) for the support of a sickly wife and child, was arrested not long since and thrown into a miserable dungeon for an entire week because he could not pay to this "free country?no king, no emperor," the outrageous tax of $5 for a peddlers license. Out of a capital of $2 the mer? chant was obliged to pay a $5 license. This was and still is being practiced in a free country and in the very city of New York. what the chinese emperor would have done. Had the above instance been sent by the Emperor of China instead of by the judges of a free country, that honest and industrious son of toil would not have been sent to a dungeon because he could not pay a five-dollar license, but he would havo been sent home with a full pocket of heathen gold to care for his sick family and an extra bank account to go into heavier business than peanuts, and, besides, witii a benediction from his Imperial Majesty. DERSON, S. C, THU This is heathenism?in China. Now, where does all the money go that is con? sequent upon this outrageous "up-to neck" taxation by this glorious Republic? Certainly the salaries of its officials do not eat it up, as they are, with hardly an exception, the poorest paid officials in the world. Even a second-grade manda? rin of China gets a bigger salary than the President of the entire United States?at least twice the amount. And yet there are more officials in China by at least ten times than there are in the United States, and the taxation in that country is so light that the people hardly feel the loss, there being no taxation upon anything in many of the provinces except salt and land actually cultivated. Upon the lat? ter there is only something less than one half per cent of the grains raised, and upon the former one per cent. There is absolutely no tax upon homesteads or real estate not actually under cultivation, nor any personal property tax. Yet the imperial treasury of China is one of the richest in Asia. There is not a dollar of national debt except that owed to the Europeans some years ago, when the opium was forced upon the heathens for the heathens' good. Even that outra? geous amount has been largely paid off by the economical heathen politicians. a great place tor rich young men. If I were a young man, especially if I were handsome and had a generous "old man" at my back with a liberal pocket book, I should prefer to live in America to any other place on earth. But I should take good care not to get old, for this is a country whore old men and women invariably take a back eeat. Sometimes they are not even allowed the comfort of any seat at all. It is only here that I find old men and women are servants of the healthful youth of either sex. It seems to be a common law among the people here to raise and sup? port children as sumptuously as their means permit and continue to support them, even long after they are able to earn their own living. But when it comes to the old people's turn sentiment seems to dwindle down almost to zero. In society the young are the centre of attraction. They are the blooming flow? ers. The old people are shut up in the kitchen behind the doors. What a muss the people of this country make of their love business! Are the understandings of the American youth obtuse? It frequently takes years of their valuable time to whisper ardent love to each other, and frequently at the very last momeut they suddenly find out they did not love each other at all. "They were simply trying to find out each other's peculiarities." Occasionally these courtings actually terminate in a marriage, but as a rule the love-making business is then over. Therefore, the only next interesting thing between them is a quarrel and a divorce. All American ladies like babies, but only few like to be'their mothers. Even the richest babies will only have cows for their mothers. This is Western civ? ilization. the way of the heathen chinee. Our old heathens pretend to know bet? ter than this. They lay down some rather iron rules to follow. Each heathen must learn the profession most suitable to him in order to earn an honest living in the near future. Our parents select us a partner for life at the proper time; they are for us to sanction. If we don't agree to that particular quality we must offer a sufficient reason, and a new selection is made. We marry first and make love afterwards, and that's the rea? son we havo no divorces. Love making is always refreshing to us because we have never doue it before, and no youth of either sex is given the privilege of marriage unless morally qualified to be good wives and industrious husbands. The property of our parents is ours, but the father or mother is the head of the firm. After their death the property, without any will making, falls to the next of kia to be equally divided, unless by general consent the eldest of the heirs assumes control ano the family continues in the same order as before the patient's death. Domestic order and happiness are the only aims of the heathen, and should be the aims of all men. wong ching roo. A Great Mau's Greatest Thought. At a dinner at the Astor House, when Daniel Webster was Secretary of State under President Fillmore, after a period of silence which fell upon the company of some twenty gentlemen wbc .vere present, one of the guests said : "Mr. Webster, will you tell me what was the most important thought that ever occupied your mind?" Mr. Webster slowly passed his hand over his forehead, and in a low tone inquired of one near him, "Is there any one here who does not know me ?" "The most important thought that ever occupied my mind," said Mr. Web? ster "was that of my individual responsi? bility to God." And after speaking on this subject in the most solemn strain for some twenty minutes, he solemnly rose from the tab'e aud retired to his room. This incident, related by Harvey in his Reminiscences, serves to illustrate the attitude of great minds towards eternal things. Great men are not scoffers. The men of flippant sneers and godless jests are men of small calibre and shallow intellect. It is not the wise man who has "said in his heart there is uo God." It is not the great man who casts off fear and restrains prayer before Him. A great man comprehends something greather than "himself, for he is but the image of a divine Creator, marred, defaced and distorted by sin, yet bearing testimony to the dignity and grandeur of the divine original, whose glory is so faintly shadowed in the man whom he has made, and endowed with intellect, and will and conscience, and whom he ha3 made to feel, in the depths of his soul, the importance of "Individual responsibility to God."?Hastings. ? "Lower your muzzle," was the remark made by a girl to a young man who kissed her on the nose. ? If you intend to do a man a mean thing, wait till to-morrow. If you are to do n noble thing, do it now. ESDAY MOENING, "STItlKING OIL." liY SOPHIE B. HERItlCK. The expression "striking oil" is such a common, everyday phrase that wo hardly stop to remember what it really means, and yet thirty years ago such a term was never used, for the very fact that gave rise to it did not exist. A hundred years or so ago a curious sight might have been seen in the Indians' country of western Pennsylvania. Early in the morning one of the squaws would carry a dir'/ blanket down to the borders of the stream. A natural conclusion would be that she was about to give her blanket a much-needed washing. But no ; instead of dipping the blanket in the water and rubbing and squeezing and wringing it, she merely flings it out on the surface of the Btreara, and when it becomes soaked draws it toward her and begins carefully squeezing out the liquid that it has caught in its meshes into a gourd The observer begins to catch the idea. It is not a clean banket that she wants, but the disagreeable, ill smelling, greasy scum that floats upon the surface of the water. In this simple manner and by these queer means the Indians of that time col? lected oil, not to give them light, but to use as a liniment to rub their poor joints when swollen with rheumatism. This was the old savage way of "striking oil"; for this oil gathered was petroleum, which is now so commonly known as kerosene, but was then called "Seneca oil," and used only as a medicine. A certain Colonel Drake, who had a farm in that part of the country, came to the conclusion that somewhere in the earth was to be found a reservoir of oil, which he could reach by digging for it He believed that the oil which oozed out of the rock and made a greasy scum ou the Oil Creek waters came from some? where, and that somewhere he meant to discover. His neighbors amused them? selves by laughing at him and joking him, much as Noah's neighbors did when he was building the ark. Their tune was changed, however when, in the summer of 1859 Colonel Drake "struck oil." In the course of four months Drake's well had poured forth 2000 barrels of oil. Then the nation took the oil fever. Speculators rushed in, new wells were dug, and the once desolate fields bristled with derricks. Before Drake's well was dug, manufac? tories were in existence in which oil was distilled out of coal, and called coal-oil. Petroleum was found to be so like this substance that it too is often called coal oil, and supposed to be .distilled in the great work shop of nature out of coal. But that idea is incorrect. It is not made out of coal, but it is closely con? nected with coal in this way, that both coal and petroleum are made from the plant life of the past, which in the course of ages has been changed into these two substances. If coal-oil were made out of coal, it would be found near the great coal beds. This, however, is not always, not even usually, the case. We have seen how the coal beds were formed by the great swamp forest, which, under fresh-water and by means of great heat and pressure, were turned into coal. Oil, it is thought, is formed by the softer plants, sea-weed and water-plants, which have been, under saltwater and at a lesser heat, distilled beneath the surface of the earth. The oil being formed in the water, of course floated on the top. Sometimes it soaked into porous sand? stone, sometimes it ran into holts and fissures of the rocks. Usually it is found associated with the salt-water under which it was gradually formed. I have said that oil is distilled out of plants; it is also distilled in much the same way from the animal life of the past; but we probably owe most of what is sold to a distillation of plants. The rocks of many periods, besides that when plants grew in such enormous quantities, are full of oil. In the coal beds, you remember, we found every kind of coal showing the gradual change of vegetable matter into coal?from peat through soft coal to hard coal. In the same way pe? troleum is found in all the different forms it takes on in its change?light oil, heavy oil, bitumen, and last, it is thought by some, diamond. If a great mass of vege? table matter is heaped up and left, and after a while examined, in the middle of it is found an oily, tarry substance, like one of the forinB ot petroleum?bitumen. With the oil and the salt-water in the underground pools tbei;e is found a quan? tity of gas formed from the petroleum. And it is this gas, which is very much squeezed up, that makes the oil spout up when a boring reaches the reservoir. When water and oil and gas exist togeth? er in the same crevice of the rock, the water, being heaviest, will lie at the bot? tom ; on top of that will be the oil, and above both of them the squeezed-up gas. Now you can see that if a well ia dug at A, the crowded up gas will force up tter in trying to get room for itself. After the water has all come up, if the gas is still very much compressed, the oil, which has run down to B to take the place of the water, will follow the flow of water. If the power of the expanding gas has gone, the oil must then be pump? ed up. If, however, the well has been dug at C, gas comes up, and oil must be pumped up when the gas his all escaped. Natural gas is use to a great extent to light and in part to heat great cities in the coal and oil districts. It seems as though the supply mast soon give out, but as a matter of fact it seems to be nearly undiminished in places where the wells have been blowing off gas for nine years. And if it should give out, the pipes being all laid, it is possible to make a kind of cheap gas at the mines which can be carried and used as the natural gas has been. The oil is certainly failing in the old fields. New fields may of course be found and probably will; for the oil that has been burned all over the world until a abort timo ago came mainly from a strip of laud only one hundred and fifty miles long, and from two to twenty miles wido. But of late years there has been a won? derful discovery of oil in Russia, where wells have spouted the incredible amount of fifty thousand barrels a day. The great works that used to distil coal-oil have been turned into refineries NOVEMBER 17, 188 I of petroleum. After the kerosene lias been made, a thick tarry, disagreeable stuff is left. This looks like the most hopeless sort of material for any use, but out of it are made our modern "wax" candles, "wax" matches, and even some sorts of c.indy and chewing gum. Anoth? er of the materials left when the kerosene is taken out is made into beautiful dyes ?colors that were never seen in old times. Unfortunately these colors do not hold like the simple old-fashioned dyes but often fade out, or what is worse, fade into very ugly tints. Much of the oil is brought from the re? gion whero it is found in curious tank cars, but some of it is pumped through pipes three hundred miles long, from the mines to the refineries. Besides the track of the Central Railroad of New Jersey such a pipe runs. If you ever chance to go over that road to Long Branch or Philadelphia, or to some Jer? sey town near New York, notice this pipe, aud you may hear the oil from three hundred miles away give a thud, thud, as it is pumped into the reservoirs at Bayonue. If you look to the eastward, about six miles below Jersey City on this road you will see a branch track curving off to New York Bay, where it ends in a forest of masts and faclores and great oil tanks. Many a time you may sec from New York the whole heavens ablaze with the fire from a tank that has been struck by lightning or has caught on fire some other way. A still more wonderful sight, however, is to see a natural oil well ablaze. One of these wells at Cherry Grove, Pennsyl? vania, in the summer of 1882, was sending out oil at the rate of a thousand barrels a day. By some accident it took fire and for four days and nights it shot up into the air a blazing founta'n, breaking into millious of fiery drops, the great column of fire swept here and there by the pass? ing winds. The fire at last was quenched by shooting off with a cannon ball the top of the tube out of which the oil was spouting, and plugging the pipe below the blaze ; but some of these wells have gone on burning till all the oil which they contained has been consumed.? Harper's Young Tcoplc. The Cumberland Valley anil Unaka Road. Wo had a very pleasant call this week from Col. W. A. Hoskins, a prominent gentleman of .Sweet Water, Tenn., who is greatly interested in the building of this important road. Indeed, it was at the suggestion of Col. Hoskins that the pres? ent route was adopted, and he of course feels a lively interest in its success. He says the company have ample capital, that they have determined to build the road, and he is fully satisfied of the early completion of this great line. We have endeavored heretofore to show the many advantages of a road through our moun? tain country. It is the shortest and cheapest route from the great West to the Atlantic coast, passing through a country rich in agricultural lands and timbers, and especially in its minerals. From the geological formation of the country to be traversed by the Cumber? land Valley and Unaka Road, almost every mineral known to our country ought to be, and doubtless will be, dis? covered, with intelligent exploration. The following minerals are known to exist: Iron ores, including limonite and magnetic, in great quantity and of most superior quality; marble of every shade, mica, asbestos, corrundum, roofing slates, granite, gold, &c. We hope to see active work commenced on this great road at an early day.?Franklin (N. C.) Press, No vcmber 3. Gardening by the Barrel. The agriculturl editor of the Philadel? phia Record mentions a Jer.-eyraan's practice which enables him with very little extra outlay to secure better results, especially in a season of drouth, than from three times as much space devoted to vegetable growing in the usual way ; "He procures old soap-boxes, flour barrels, kegs, or anything that will hold earth or manure, and if the boxes or barrels be somewhat rickety, so much the better. In planting melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, squashes or lima beans ho places a box on the middle of the hill, which should be six feet aeross, Gils it half full of fresh manure, and over the manure a half peck of of mixture of wood ashes and superphosphate is placed. The seeds of the melons are planted around the box, four plants being allowed to the hill, the distance of the seeds from the box being about two feet, as too close contact with the box is not desirable. When the young plants arc up soapsuds are poured over the contents of the box. In a few weeks the root3 of the plants will have reached the box, and they are then freely and liberally supplied with all the moisture and liquid manure they may need, as water is poured in the box as often as may be desired. In dry weather a bucket of water in the box causes the matter in the manuro to leak out, and it scaks in the ground around the box, where the plants appropriate it." The Sword ol Damocles. You will sometimes read an allusion to the sword of Damocles. Perhaps you have not understood what it meant. This is the s'ory. Some four hundred years before the time of Christ, Diony? sius the elder was "tyrant," or ruler, of Syracuse, in Sicily. He was surrround cd by courtiers, of whom Damocles was one. This man having flattered the ty? rant and spoken in the most glowing language of the happiness of royalty, Dionysius resolved In teach him ajsevere lesson. Damcclcs was invited to the palace, but i-n midst of the gorgeous ban? quet be happened to look upwards, when he beheld a keen-edged sword hanging above his head, and suspended by a sin? gle hair. His fear lest the hair might snap at any moment destroyed all hopes of enjoyment, and from that time his notions of royal bliss became changed. The same idea of the carea of the kingly slate was expressed by Shakespeare, when he put into the mouth of Henry the Fourth the well known sentiment? "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." "7 A Lock or Hair. When the federal:* got possession of the Sbenandoah valley and repaired the railroad tract and ran their trains, de? tachments of predatory bands made it a business to lie in ambush and fire into the coaches. A good! deal of this work was done for a time by men belonging to Iraboden ancb Mosby's commands, and finally, to protect themselves, the feder? als used to take along a number of southern citizens. Some would be com? pelled to ride on the engine, and the others would be distributed through the cars, thus making the chances even that if a volley was fired some of our own people would be killed. This stopped the practice of ambushing trains, but not until the writer had had a very close call from death. I was scouting around Winchester, and had just left a farm house where I had remained all night, when a squadron of federal cavalry struck my trail. I was hounded and dogged until mid-afternoon before I got clear away from them, and during this time I was put to such phys? ical exertions that I was seized with a chill about 5 o'clock in the afternoon and soon became too ill to travel. I was then in the woods, and there I remained until next day at noon, a part of the time out of my head. I finally got bet? ter, and partly by walking and partly by crawling I reached a farm house a mile away. The farmer wa3 a southern man, too old to go into the service, and I would have been received with all kindness but for the federals. I had scarcely entered the house when a detachment of them rode up to the gate, and ten minutes later I was being carried off as a prisoner. The only good feature about it was that I was taken for a rebel deserter in? stead of a spy, and my treatment was, therefore, far better. In three or four days 1 was all right again, and then I was ordered aboard cne of the trains and given half the engineer's seat. Indeed, I was chained there, and when the officer who had the matter in hand left me he was kind enough to say : "There, now, if your cursed rebel friends can fire into this side of the cab without hitting you let them pop away 1" I had a brother at the time in Mosby's command, and I knew that he had been engaged in the work of firing upon trains. I somehow felt that we should be fired upon, and that I should see Frank that day, and both events quickly came to pass. We were not fifteen miles out of Winchester, and were just pulling out of a heavy cut into a piece of woods, when I caught sight of the head and face of a man above a log. We were running not over fifteen miles an hour, and I was looking into the woods. The man in ambush cvas still ahead of us when I saw him, and we were not ten feet nearer when I recog? nized the face as Frank's. In the same instant I saw that he had a cavalry car? bine resting acro?s the log, and that there were four or five other men beyond him. They were there to fire a volley into the train, and we on the engine would get it first. I had only seconds in which to act. The fir3t thing was to shout to the engineer and fireman to drop to the floor, and the next to wheel squarely around and shout to Frank: "For God's sake, don't shoot! It's Ed-hold on!" Frank's gun was pointed full at my face as I shouted, and we looked right into each other's eye3. Io that brief instant I saw a borrow come to his eyes, his face grew white a3 snow, and ho could not move his lips. His finger was pull? ing the trigger, and it was too late. A sheet of flame leaped up at me, some? thing burned the side of my cheek, and then we had passed on. There was but the one shot. The other men had heard my warning in time to lnld their fire. For about a rainute I coild not tell whether I was badly hurt or had escaped scott free. But by and by I discovered that I had a bullet blister across my right cheek, and had lost a lock of hair big enough to divide among half a dozen sweethearts. My action in warning the engineer and fireman was laid up to my credit, but for the next four weeks I had to keep my seat on the locomotive. It was the last time any train was fired on, however, and if I did the federals all the damage I could before and after, they had to thank me for clearing a railroad line of a dangerous enemy. Saved by the Kick of his Mule. From the days of Adam until to day the kick of a mule has been considered as dangerous to human life and limb as a ball shot from a Parrot cannon. It re? mains for Mr. Forward, an employe of Fred Stevens, to furnish a remarkable exception to the above rule. Forward was coming down the steep hill below the tool-house, seated on a large load of lumber and driving a team of six mules. The distance from the top of the load of lumber to the ground was fully ten feet. On the way down one of the forward wheels of the wagon ran upon a rock, and the wagon, made top heavy by the load, was in imminent danger of tipping over. Forward jumped to the, ground, and in alighting broke his right leg, his body falliug directly in front of the forward wheels of the wagon, which were begin? ning to move. He was helpless, and in? stantly realizing bis position, he shut his eyes and waited for the heavily loaded wagon to crush him to death. At the instant one of the rear mules seemed to take in the situation, and letting drive with both feet kicked Forward from un? der the wheels and into the ditch by the roadside. Shortly afterward he was found lying in the ditch by passers-by and brought to this city, where the broken leg was Bet, and he i3 in a fair W3y to recover. ?Fren.io (Cal.) Republican. ? An enterprising Yankee, who owned a large chair manufactory, had occasion one day to show a friend from over tho water through his establishment. The Englishman, amazed at the quantity of chairs that ho saw in their various stages of completion, exclaimed: '"Ow can you hever hexpect to sell so many chairs?" "Wall," said tho Yankee, "I guess settin' down ain't gone out of fash? ion jcl.''?])ctroil Free J'ress. VOLUME Gelting Into the Army. Beaufain street, from King to Mazyck street, looked yesterday morning very much like the polls used to look in the olden time prior to 1S7G on election day. It was thronged with colored men who seemed anxious to see or do something. At the second floor window of the prem? ises No. G, on the north side of the street, a staff wa3 projected, from which fluttered the flag of our country. It was the new recruiting rendezvous, which has been established here under the command of Lieut. Hutton, and which will probably be formally opened to-day. Whether the crowd that assembled yesterday will make haste to enlist or not remains to bo seen. Lieut. Hutton has with him a recruit? ing detail consisting of Sergt. Herman Morgner and Privates Daniel Shield*1, Wm. Meade and John Welby. He said yesterday that all the paraphernalia of the station had arrived except the eye tests, which are certain printed cards by means of which the eyesight of the recruit can be tested as to the distance they can see, &c. These tests were ex pected yesterday but did not arrive. The only applicants received yesterday were several colored troopers who had already served a term and been dis? charged and who seem to like army i.fe so much that they desire to return to it after having had a "run" in civil life for a year or so. Most of these applicants came dressed up in the new army uni? forms that they received when discharged. They had been through the process before and were examined without much trouble and only await the arrival of the eye test cards to complete their examina? tion. "It may be as well to state," said Lieut Hutton to a representative of the News and Courier yesterday, "that it is not as easy a matter as a gocd mauy people think it is to get into the regular army. One of the reasons for establish? ing this rendezvous here, I am told, is that the requirements of enlistment are so high that the regular stations could not furnish material enough to keep the army up to the regulation standard. For that reason this station was ordered to be opened." Then Lieut. Hutton handed the Re? porter a kiud of catechism very similar to that which an applicant for an insu? rance policy has to go through. It is very searching, the questions going into all the antecedents of the recruit, as well as those of his father and grandfathers, and requiring the answering of some very delicate and difficult questions. Lieut. Hutton went on to say that the applicant for enlistment was first put through this catechism, his answers taken down and the report filed away. If the embryo soldier passes through this ordeal successfully he is turned over to one of the recruiting staff, who conducts bim to a room on the second floor, where he is put through a course of "ablution ary sprouts," so to speak. In other words, he is scrubbed from the ground up. Emerging frorn the bath-room, leaving his old clothes and all other clothes behind him, he is ushered into the examining room very much in the same state in which he was ushered iuto the world. Having undergone these examinations, mental, physical and genealogical, the recruit is conducted ,back to the bath? room, where he is allowed to take anoth? er bath if he so desires, and to resume his outer shell. If he shall have passed through successfully his papers are made out, he is^ sworn in, neatly clad in the livery of Uncle Sam, and at the proper time is sent to a camp of instruction of which there are several in the United Slates, and there put through the A B C of his military education. Having been licked into something like shape, a pro? cess which depends very much on the re? cruit himself, he is finally drafted into a 'regiment, and is known to the world thereafter as Private X. Y. Z., Q Com? pany, 12th United States infantry, artil? lery or cavalry, as the case may bo. It will be seen from the above that to get into Uncle Sam's army is somewhat like the difficulties which, according to the Scriptures, confront the millionaires of this world on their journey to Paradise. The light-fingered gentry of the ciiy, in fact, need not apply. Of the crowd which assembled in front of the new re? cruiting station yesterday, and which numbered several huudred, about two would probably pass the examination. Still, if any ablebodied, honest citizen, white or black, no matter what may be his financial condition, desires to enlist and can pass the physical examination he can get into the army, and once in the army there is no reason why if he is in earnest he may not obtain an education aud in time rise from the ranks. In any event a young man who can find no opening here may, if he can pass the ex? amination, enter the army, serve for five years and at the end of that time get bis discharge with enough money saved up out of his pay and perquisites to give him a small capital to start him in the walks of civil life.?Neies and Courier, JS'ovemhcr 10. A Model Housekeeper. Mrs. Cleveland came back from Phila? delphia on Friday morning says a Wash? ington correspondent. The servants at the whito house are glad of it, because they say that when the mistress is away, the house is dull and gloomy. "Some? how," said one to day, "her presence here is like sunshine. She is always so lively, so merry and bright. I hated to see her go away for everything changes when she is gone and the brightness goes with her." Mrs. Cleveland i3 lovely in her home life. She is a charming house? keeper, and while she is not a hard mis? tress, by any means, she is a careful and watchful one. She does not have to request a thing done more than once, because the servants love her aud always hasten to do her bidding. When any? thing goes wrong, she has a manner of reproving which makes the offender ready to bite his own head off for having offended his fair mistress. ? "If women are really angels," writes an old bachelor, "Why don't they fly over the fence instead of making such a fearful awkward job of climbing ?" XXIII.- -NO. 19. Experts In Washington Life, The wives and daughters of new Con? gressmen and officials are frequently thrown into society without previous preparation. From the quiet of a coun? try home this i3 a terrible transition. There are ladies here in Washington whose husbands have been army or navy officers. They have spent years in soci? ety and have held and still hold high rank. The mysteries of form and usage are familiar to them, but the death or retirement of their husbands has reduced their finances below the figures of their extravagant tastes. These ladies now Sustain their position in society leading the uninitiated through tho mysterious mazes. They teach the wives of the new Senators aud members from the back dis? tricts the polite forms and pilot them safely through a winter in Washington. The relation they hold to the novice is that of a superior, who condescends to take part of a friendly adviser or chape? ron. They are courted, followed?and paid! They are women who have been belles in society in the past, and who dictate its forms now. They now make a business of pleasure. They advise their patrons what to wear, how to fur? nish their house, how to talk and act, how to set thsir table?, how to receive callers and who to receive; when to call, how to call, and who to call on. They tell them the difference between an ordi? nary tea and a high tea; between a din? ner party and a luncheon. They rub the dust off their dialect and teach them polite forms of speech, and tell them what to talk about. They lead them around the circle and teach by example. These chaperons are not kuow-a as such" except to those wn?"eixfp*07 them, and they arc the most courted of all society. They are experts in Washington life. In the morning, when they are not cir? cling the rounds of society, they act the part of private conversationalists. There are always a number of wealthy ladies who, ou account of not yet knowing the ways of society, or of ill-health, or per? haps because they are in mourning, are not in tho social swim. As conversationalists these queens and factotums of society bring all the gossip and goings on in society in a morning call upon those wealthy victims of seclu? sion. They tell them who held recep? tions last night and who were there; what they wore, what they said, and what was said about them. They relate the latest private scandal; tell what different people think of each other, and how each is measured up by the whole of society. They report how long Mr. talked with Miss Millions, and repeat what "society" thought of it. They dis? cuss the engagements made, to be made, and broken off. All the little bits of gossip, small talk, and scandal they carry with exact memory as to all the inter? esting details, and keep their .secluded patrons as well posted as if they were among the most gay. They lighted up a melancholy morning. Some of the most fashionable women who have long been the "leaders" of so? ciety earn in this way tho means to keep up their establishments and to maintain themselves in fashiouable luxury. The wives and daughters of some famous men now dead are professional leaders of soci? ety, and live by their profession.?Phila? delphia Telegraph. The Quail Question. Dr. Hammond, the distinguished med? ical philosopher of New York, in a talk with a Herald reporter the other day, said: "There is no reason in the wcrld, why a man should not eat twenty quail in twenty days, or a hundred in a hun? dred days. Unless a man has a precon? ceived notion that it will make him ill there is nothing in the feat to prevent his eating the birds. This talk about the impossibility of eating a pigeon a day for thirty or fifty days is all imagination. Nothing but a mental disturbance can affect the stomach and prevent its action in such a case. Any man can walk on a board laid down in his back yard, but raise the board fifty feet high into space and no matter how solid it may be one man out of ten can not walk. Yet the muscles and physical powers are just as strong in midair as on the ground. What prevents a man walking the plank? Simply fear acting upon his imagination. So it is when a man begins eating a bird a day for twenty days. He has heard that it.is impossible, and the fear of fail? ure excites his stomach and makes him sick. "I will agree," said the doctor, with a twinkle in his eye, "to eat one hundred quail in a hundred days for $1,000 a quail, and I'll win the money." To Remain on Until Death. At the breaking out of the war Mr. Bryant James, of Eufaula, Alabama, left for the front as first lieutenant of Colt's artillery. As he bade farewell to his young wife he placed upon her finger a plain gold ring, biding her remember him. At one of the terrible engagements around Petersburg while ?helling a feder? al batinry, a shell from the enemy carried of the lieutenaut's right arm, taking away as a sacrifice to the cause the hand that had so tenderly placed the ring upon the fair hand of his wife. This invests the ring with a tender pathos, and though now after nearly a quarter of a century's wear the ring has worn to a slender band of gold, it has never been taken from her finger, and Mrs. James says that it never shall. ? ? A terrible accident occured at a balloon ascension in St. Louis last week. Shortly after 9 o'clock the balloon, a hct air affair, was brought on the stage before the audience of 2,000. The air ship started upward quickly and had attained a height of 500 feet when there was a collapse, and the aeronaut plunged to the ground holding desperately to the ropes which held the sagging canvass; the descent was very rapid, and as he . came down before the audieuce he was thrown upon an iron rod from which rockets were being fired. Death ensued instantly. The terrified spectators rushed to the scene, but could give no help, and the place was quickly deserted. ? The economy of nature made a bad break when it supplied pigs with tails. A pig's tail is of no more use to the pig than the letter "p" is to pneumonia.